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Cheers and jeers

Published: Friday, January 18, 2013 at 9:48 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, January 18, 2013 at 9:48 p.m.

Out there somewhere — You could be $10,000 richer and not even know it.

A lottery ticket for the Aug. 8 drawing, purchased at the St. Charles Shell on St. Charles Street in Houma, matched four of the five balls and the Powerball.

The owner of the ticket has won $10,000, but that person has not stepped forward to claim the money.

The numbers for the drawing were 3-7-11-15-28, and the Powerball was 12.

The owner of the ticket has until 5 p.m. on Feb. 4 to claim the prize, or it will go unclaimed.

Urge anyone you know who bought a ticket at that gas station to check the numbers.

If you have the winning numbers, contact the lottery office by calling 504-889-0031 or 225-297-2000.

It could be you.

Jeers

He should know better — The Lafourche Parish Council is not going vote on a proposal that could have allowed bars to stay open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

Councilman John Arnold, who put forward the measure, has said he is pulling it from consideration to “do more research.”

“I want to do a little more research on how different parishes have adjusted to 3 a.m. sales,” Arnold said.

Meanwhile, District Attorney Cam Morvant II has issued an opinion saying Arnold’s involvement in the matter is improper because Arnold owns a bar, Club Illusions on La. 1.

Local officials should know better than to propose laws that could benefit them personally. If they don’t know better already, this should be fair warning.

“The Louisiana Ethics Code prohibits any public servant from participating in a transaction in which he has a personal substantial interest of which he may be reasonably expected to know involving the public entity,” Morvant’s opinion says.

Arnold should have known better than to bring this up. And he and his colleagues on the council should know better than to bring it up again.

Jeers

Budget cuts hurt again — Cuts in spending are nothing new.

Health care and higher education have been cut to the bone in recent years, and those cuts are getting even deeper.

Some, though, have hurt worse than others.

One local example of the fallout is Options for Independence, a social-service program that works with children and adults with developmental disabilities.

State money for the program has been slashed, with Medicaid money being cut in half. That is a big decrease for a program that works with so many people who desperately need the services.

“Isn’t it a comfort to know that there are agencies that these kids can go to who need extra support to make a safer environment for everyone else?” said Misty Robichaux with Options.

That is a good question.

Cheers

Documenting land loss — We know the value of our communities. Now there’s a high-tech tool being developed so others can appreciate what we already know.

Vanishing Points is a Web app being created by Florida International University student Sandra Maina, working with the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center.

The tool should help people who want to record their thoughts and photos of the coastal communities in our region. It will also serve as a way for those elsewhere to learn more about our corner of the world.

The app should be available in the coming months. Keep an eye out for it.

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